It's absolutely no secret that there were some frictions between us
and the Irish Data Protection Commissioner and quite honestly, oftentimes
a lot of the other players and the Irish DPC.
And that included that a couple of weeks ago, we were criticizing a draft decision
which was greeted with a letter by the DPC asking us to take down
content from our website, including that draft decision,
but also interestingly, asking that our own submission should be taken down,
which we have every right to publish at any time.
This was already rather exceptional, but now we've reached really a point
that I personally have never thought will we'll reach with any authority ever.
But we got a letter by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner
that is also on our website, demanding that we would sign
a so-called non-disclosure agreement in addition to the existing legal system
demanding that we would in the interest of the DPC and Facebook,
not use documents, that we are legally allowed to use, any further.
And that was connected - as a kind of 'quid pro quo' -
with further granting us the rights we have to be heard in the procedure
and to have access to documents.
So in very simple terms, they said, either you shut up or we're not going to grant
you your legal rights anymore. Or the other way round for or shutting up,
we're going to grant you your legal rights that you have in a procedure.
Now this is not just unheard of,
but but also from a legal perspective, extremely problematic.
If we would have violated some rules that would have existed.
There is usually remedies for that.
You can go to court if you believe that someone was not allowed to use a document.
The DPC hasn't done that.
Facebook hasn't done that. Because they know
that everything we've done is it's fully compliant with the law.
So instead, they went into some kind of blackmail
where they basically say, we're not going to give you your documents in the future.
More of a factual blackmail than really being within a legal order.
And we have raised
all the reasons why we think that that is not just unlawful,
but but actually would be criminal for noyb to comply with.
But the DPC rejected that and has now
literally removed us from a pending procedure.
So we're not going to be heard, we're not going to get any documents.
Facebook will get all these documents and will be heard, but not us.
That is going to mean that
that procedure is definitely going to be open for appeal
and and whatever comes out of it
is probably not going to sustain any review in courts.
There's an additional element to that.
As I mentioned, if you look at these exchanges
kind of shut up for actually getting your rights, you're in a situation
where that can potentially be be subject for corruption issues.
If as a decision maker, as a public figure, you basically connect
to conduct of your office
with a benefit for you or a third party,
then that may violate Austrian criminal laws.
And as much as noyb would have basically violated these laws,
if we would have agreed to such a deal or exchange,
that could also be true for the Irish regulator.
So we've really rethought that a couple of times, but there is simply
every red line of conducting your office properly crossed by now.
So we've taken the decision
that we file a criminal report with the Austrian Corruption Office
for a potential violation of Austrian criminal laws
by the relevant officers at the Data Protection Commissioner.
We'll see how that ends up.
We are actually really worried about the situation there,
but will basically have no other option than than than doing this.
Generally, we will update you about these details.
We'll keep you posted.
We'll obviously not agree to any such deals
and will not agree to any kind of system where we're going to have to shut up
or not talk about or criticize things in public.
That's the reason we live in a democracy that we can do that.
So we'll we'll see how that ends up.
It's it's actually quite sad news, but I think it's news
that has to go out there and it should be available to discuss.
All the relevant documents are on our website.
We have not published criminal filings also to protect the privacy
and rights of the relevant officers, but we have shared that with them.
So they are aware of of the details
and we'll see if the corruption office starts an investigation.
If that goes anywhere, obviously until such time,
there is the presumption of innocence and it's just a
potential criminal violation. So we'll.
See how that goes and where it ends up.